The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1887-06-22

'nat us stars, as seen from distance
OF 9,O0o,000.000 miles, their ayerao,
distance apart, would shine /. 400 time
as bright as Sirius shines in our sky.
Sirius is probably 500 times as bright
as the faintest star that the naked ey,
percelves on clear night. The,
imagine star three times as mucl
brighter than Sirius as Sirius i
brighter than the smallest star yo,
can see, and you will have some motor
OF the brilliancy of the stars in ones
tlon as seen from one another.
Now let us suppose world revoly
ing around star situated at the cen.
ter OF the cluster. Assuming that the
surrounding stars are arrang cd in :
pretty symmetrical way, there would
be dozen of them within a distance
OF 5000, 100000 miles, and each Of
these would, as seen from the world al
the center, appear l, 400 times brighter
than Sirius appears to us. There
would be upward of SO stars twice rs
1ar away, each of which would be $50
times as bright as Sirius. Thus the
stars OF the cluster, as seen from the
center, would go on increasing in
number and diminishing in brightness.
but as the total number is limited to
$4,000 or $4,000, the outermost stars
would be approximately 1876, GOO, 600, 900
miles away, and each would shine six
times as bright as Sirius.
1t is apparent that there would be a
sort OF perpetual daylight at the GEN.
ter OF such congregation of suns.
Let US see about how bright this light
would be. Of course, our suppositi-
tlous planet might receive from the
sun to which it belonged as brilliant
Ia daylight as our sun gives to
us, but what would be the illumina-
ton of its nights, OF, in other words,
OF that side of it which was turned
away from its sun? Zollner has esti-
mated the light of the sun to be
blo,O4O times as great as that of the
full moon. This, upon the estimate of
olrlus light as compared with the
suns that we have adopted, would
give the moon about 5000 times as
much light as Sirius
Since each of the stars in the cluster
has 1.4OO times the light of Sirius, at
5000, 900, 900 miles distance, and there
are dozen of them within that dis
lance OF the centre, it follows that
these dozen stars will shed above twice
as much light upon a world in the
centre of the cluster as the full moon
sends to us. And, since the light re-
ceived from body varies inversely as
the square of it's distance, while the
number OF such bodies arranged in the
roughly spherical way we have sup
posed would increase directly as the |
square Of their distance from The CEN
tire. it is clear that the amount of light |
received from the whole cluster
would be as many times |
amount received from the twelve stars |
nearest the center, as the radius of the
cluster exceeds 9,OOO,OOO,OO miles.
This would be about fifteen times, and
80 the total amount of light shed upon
The center would be fifteen times the
shed from the first twelve
stars, or about thirty times the amount
that the full moon pours upon the
earth. But only half the stars of the
cluster would be above the horizon at
once, and so the illumination of the
hight sky on our imaginary world
would be fifteen times as bright as the
light of the full moon upon the earth.
The number of stars visi BILE to us
With the unaided eye on a clear night
s not over 5000, and the great ma
GRITTY of these are so faint that they
equire some attention to be seen at
ii. How contemplate, then, IS the {
tarry armament presented to us in
with the glorious heavens
n this sun cluster of Hercules, where {
nore than twice as many stars as we
an see blaze nightly with radiance {
brilliant that the faintest of the m {
re six times as bright as the greatest
tar in our sky.
Indeed, the light of all these aston
hingly bright stars diffused in the at
losphere of our imaginary planet
'ould be so great as largely to rob the
ldividual stars of their brilliance, just e
5 the light of the moon or the blaze 2
the electric lights upon the Brooklyn y
ridge serves to partially efface the a
ars in our sky. Z
Another effect of this splendid dis b
lay of stars would be to shut out from v
le view of the inhabitants of the CEN O
r of the cluster, all the outside uni O
,rse. In the flood of light poured "
ON the members of the cluster the 81
her stars beyond them would be in Il
sible, and the jewellers within the Il
stem would be, so to speak, shut up fl
little universe of their own, know r,
g nothing of the greater universe be- "
md, in which we see their cluster c,
'ating like mote IN the sunbeams. N
1t remains to consider briefly what IL
ould be the condition of things upon Al
world circling around one of the stars Il
the outer edge of the cluster Here, al
a moments thought, shows the m
pearances presented would be E
ry different from those re-
the center of the cluster. OF
'ss than half of the sky visible from h,
oh a planet would be occupied by the D,